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Identifying weeds

2K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  avjudge 
#1 ·
[/ATTACH]I've tried to figure out on my own what these weeds are. Any input would be great. I think one of them is milkweed, but the other two I have no clue what they are.
 
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#7 ·
[/ATTACH]I've tried to figure out on my own what these weeds are. Any input would be great. I think one of them is milkweed, but the other two I have no clue what they are.

As soon as I saw this picture my first thought was crotolaria, altho the pods in your picture are longer and thinner than the crotolaria I'm familiar with. I would most definitely take the samples to your local agricultural agent for identification.



Horses Poisoned by Showy Crotalaria
 
#11 ·
The second pic with the tiny yellow flowers is hop clover. It isn't poisonous but enough of it can colic a horse. My horses love that stuff as hay but won't eat as grass. Too much of that wiry stuff colicked one of my horses.

I ended up giving a hundred dollars worth of hay that was polluted with hop clover to my neighbor with beef cattle. That was the last year I bought from a guy who had always had the best hay in the county.

I don't know about the other weeds but, If you have that many weeds in the hay, get rid of it and pay extra for quality hay.

I pay $7.25/bale for 99.9% weed free orchard/mix. I can get $2 - $4/ bale hay all day long in my county but it's full of weeds, therefore a lot waste.

I end up saving money when I pay more because the horses don't have much waste and I'm not out in the middle of winter looking for something decent.
 
#12 ·
@walkinthewalk thanks for the info. I'm in the process of looking for a new hay source. This has been a pretty wet year for hay, but on top of dirty bales I am now finding all these weeds that I didn't have last year from the same supplier. He has amazing grass hay too, so this is unfortunate. My neighbor says she'll buy most of my bales, so hopefully I can find new hay.
 
#13 ·
At least it's not rabbits. This summer I found three baled rabbits.

Horses do not eat baled rabbits, or anything that has touched them or smells like them. Period. Just so you know.

If your ag agent turns out to be a no show, post these pics on the GardenWeb plant ID forum. It is filled with experts. Try to find seed heads, those are the most diagnostic.
 
#14 ·
@Avna One year I had snakes in about 10 bales. When I went up to do chores one morning I noticed from a distance there was an unusual amount of hay left in one of the Nets. When I got up close there were snake parts hanging out of the net. So gross! It took forever to wash the smell out of the hay, and I honestly can't believe I didn't notice them when I filled the net. I'm thinking it might have been one my boyfriend filled.
 
#17 ·
First looks like dogbane or indian hemp, second looks like an aster of some sort. I'd guess beggarstick. A clover would have a trifoliate leaf that doesn't or I don't see that from the picture. I'd take a wild guess and say a sorrel for the third but there really isn't any way to tell with that picture.
 
#19 ·
A clover would have a trifoliate leaf that doesn't or I don't see that from the picture..
This link shows live hop clover, which is what the second picture looks like to me. Maybe it isn't, but that's what I see:)

Hop Clover: Pictures, Flowers, Leaves and Identification

When it's dried and baled, the stems are stiff/wiry. The horses love the taste and it isn't toxic but can cause colic if there's too much mixed in the bale.
 
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#20 ·
. . . She did say the biggest weed threat in our area is white snakeroot, and I don't think I have any of that in the hay.
I'd never heard of this before (no surprise, I've never lived in the midwest), but just 2 days ago was reading an article linked in this week's Dave's Garden newsletter ("White Snakeroot and Milk Sickness: The Toxic Plant that Killed Nancy Hanks Lincoln"). I remember reading, as a child decades ago, in Lincoln biographies that his mother had died from milk sickness, and had no idea what that was. I remember because I thought the name was so odd - did they drink too much milk? That was way before the internet, so no Google, and I hadn't thought of it since.
 
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